My Blog

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Taran — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:37:30 GMT

And pointier. And more poisonous. And hotter. And HUMID. Nobody mentioned humid! Temperatures in the hundreds (See how good I am getting at Fahrenheit? I mean of course high thirties or forties C) I could maybe even take, but HUMID??? I thought this place was supposed to be a semi-desert! Also, around Austin everything was way too green and almost forested. I'm now up in northern Texas (spitting distance from Oklahoma, really) and it's much more what I pictured. It's still pretty green but the locals assure me that's temporary. There are plenty of cactus, mesquite, agave, and cattle, and lots of red dirt, so it's pretty much meeting the "Texas quotient." Also the roads are very nice. It probably helps that they don't have so much freeze-thaw to wreck them. So far I have not seen any guns, but I'm sure they're out there. For the most part people seem very friendly, and I am starting to get used to the accent. It's kinda fun to listen to, especially this old local historian dude who knows everything and can talk for hours. In some ways it reminds me of my grandparents' farms, except for the oil stuff and the shooting people. Don't get me wrong, there are shotguns on my Grandma's farm. They're chained to a rack in the diningroom behind the door, and once in a while my uncle does have to shoot a coyote (pronounced coyotee down here, except by one old lady who just says coyot like I would) So---we flew down to Austin, dropped off specimens at the University to get scanned (check out http://www.digimorph.org and you will understand what I mean---that site gives me a geekgasm), picked up some supplies, and drove up here to Seymour and Archer counties. Apparently County is very important down here---much more cohesive than the rural municipalities back home, as far as I can tell. Bonus of being in Austin was getting to meet Saya (see picture), who's been a tribe buddy for years, in the flesh. We had a great time just wandering downtown (I think) Austin, caught some kind of street fair, and generally just chatted. It was luvurly. Only thing better would've been the chance to ATS together, but that wasn't happening. I also caught my first sunburn, because I was pasty winter white. So far we've managed to traverse the state, catch up with some semi-local fossil hunters and a local fossil-hunter/historian, Jack Lufton, who was Romer's field assistant back in the day and knows everything there is to know about Archer County, Seymour County, and probably Texas in general. It did take a bit longer than we'd hoped, so we spent a couple of days at less-than-ideal sites waiting for everything to fall into place to visit the uber site of Permian Palaeontological heaven. Because we REALLY did not want to piss of any of the locals. Bad idea in Texas. But anyway, we made it out there today just in time for the brutally killer Texas heat, worked on my third sunburn (apparently three applications of 30 SPF sunscreen over a five hour period aren't enough., and found lots of cool stuff that we probably won't have a chance to really explore before we have to drive back to Austin on Sunday---but anyway, a good trip all around, if not without its kinks (like coming back to the hotel today and having no water---they were fixing the pumps---then, when it did come back on, it was red-rusty-orange. Just like the dirt. Ah well. At least I got to see lizards :)

Itchy fingers

Taran — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:26:58 GMT

I want to make something. Really, I want to sew. Something impressive and complicated, with a fabric that makes me wriggle just to touch it. Probaly something well beyond my somewhat limited sewing abilities. Maybe even something for (gasp) everyday wear. It's not going to happen. I don't have the money to go hunting down fabrics for projects of questionable use, and I absolutely don't have the time. I'm trying desperately to work my mind into a position where I can surrender it to my PhD---give that the kind of attention it needs. It's a bit like the onset of motherhood, actually---that intensive infancy where almost everything you are gets put on hold in favour of this other. The downside with the PhD is it doesn't scream if you ignore it. It's also not nearly as cute and cuddly and rewarding as the baby. However, it will be over a lot sooner than motherhood, one way or the other... And in the meantime, my rebellious body wants to sew.

.... snow....

Taran — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:24:28 GMT

ugh. Honestly. Temperatures were in the upper teens (C) last weekend. I went through the kids' clothes and put away the fleecy pjs. The daycare lady and I were discussing the viability of runningshoes as outdoor footwear again. And today? Snow. It probably won't stick, but jeez.

Fun with Museum Specimens

Taran — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:01:11 GMT

A few months ago my supervisor gave me access to a fossil of an early not-quite-reptile to draw up and study. It was, apparently, collected by another researcher in the 80s, never described, and not part of any museum collection. Finally, today, I got around to starting to look at it, and spent a couple of hours drawing it under the camera lucida. Afterwards, I bopped up to my supervisor's office to dive through his old reprints for papers describing the genus we thought the specimen probably was. And sure enough, there's a paper from 1963 describing the genus. And there's various drawings of the referred specimens. Including one of the exact specimen I'd just been drawing. Ooopsie. It appears that it was actually collected in about 1911, accessioned to a museum, and probably borrowed by the researcher we got it from---then at some point it lost its specimen number (put in the wrong tray, piece of paper falls off, who knows) and gets lumped in with (or possibly even switched with) that 1980s collection. And this is how specimens disappear, folks... So my supervisor called the museum it (according to the 1963 paper) is supposed to be at, to see if they can actually find the specimen (or what they think is the specimen)---to find out whether it's been switched or was just completely missing. I'm kinda hoping the former---because then I may get to see this phantom 1980s specimen---but anyway. It gives me hope (maybe) that some of the other specimens I'm looking for, which have been reported missing, may resurface. Anyway, made for an exciting day, though a little disappointing I don't have a whole new specimen to describe.

Apparently...

Taran — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:00:29 GMT

my hometown is the most dangerous city in Canada! which isn't actually a surprise... it's usually in the top three. /sigh. http://blog.macleans.ca/2009/03/05/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-canada/

I want the cold back.

Taran — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:23:54 GMT

Do you know how many times I've gotten stuck since it warmed up? all that nice, hard-packed snow is now foot-deep MUSH. I got stuck trying to turn in to the kids school to drop them off this morning! (And stuck trying to leave my parking space at home yesterday morning) (thank god for the three ladies who hopped out of their cars by the school and helped push me out, within moments of me getting stuck... not to mention my sitter's husband who was walking back from dropping the kids off at school and helped out, too). Darned Calgary winters.

sick bad... family doctor good. (including lengthly ramble on ADHD)

Taran — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:43:43 GMT

So, life sucked for a few days last week when my sore throat turned into "feels like razorblades every time I swallow" plus shakes and fever and an uvula so swollen it was resting on my tongue (creating a feeling of something stuck in your throat which really makes you want to swallow, which isn't fun when swallowing is as painful as mentioned... Fortunately, on Tuesday somehow I managed to dial the number of one of the doctors on the "taking patients" list and make an appointment to see a new (real!) family Doctor for Friday (this was before the throat plague crippled me on Thursday) and I didn't even have a heart-attack when I dialed. I wish I didn't get myself worked up into such a fit of anxiety over dumb stuff. I've been putting this off for like a year, because I couldn't handle the thought of randomly dialing the number of a doctor I knew nothing about. Looking up physician reviews didn't help much since most of the doctors who are taking patients are new, either to the practice or to the country... but anyway. Accomplished! Yes, should not have been a big deal. Was. So on Friday we slogged our way over to the far side of town. The clinic is in the Pacific Place mall, which specializes in Asian goods; I've shopped there before (got the cool fan in our bedroom from there) but it's a pretty trippy place to be. Mind you, I firmly believe it's good for the soul to be in the minority from time to time, so I'm not complaining. At least about that. The long wait in the super-crowded waiting room... now that did suck. But ah, to finally see a doctor who's prepared to provide continuing care. In particular (aside from taking one look at my throat and writing me a scrip for some antibiotics) he dashed of dexedrine prescriptions for both Robin and Domini without blinking (or needing to write a letter to the old doctors first), which is amazing to me (we got in a crapload of trouble trying to get Robin help for his ADHD from someone who wasn't his family doctor in the past... apparently that's considered drug-seeking behaviour.) So now I have a cupboard full of prescriptions (and some sticker shock, since Robin has no coverage right now), a referral to a gynecologist for me and a pediatrician who specializes in ADHD for Domini, so life may actually be pretty good. We gave Domini her first dose of dex (one of the eight-hour spansules) today, to give her a few days to get used to it before school starts. Then I made her do some homework/studying with me. OMG. This is the kid who can't read through a three-syllable word (much less a sentence) without me having to get her attention at least twice. This is the kid who you send to clean her room and go in to find her swinging monkey-bars under her loft bed. This is the kid who can't even finish a meal for getting distracted. But we read a book, sat down and went through her science book (all on rocks and minerals... yay! roughly equivalent to the first year geology course I used to TA), then started on the multiplication flash-cards. Three or four hours later, I gave up because my head was pounding (still kinda sick). She sat there and played with the flash-cards for probably another two hours, until we finally made her stop. Okay, maybe that's a bit over-focused, but having spent the last two weeks wondering how on earth she's going to pass gr. 3, I am not going to complain. Downsides: she had a nasty tummy ache this morning (Possibly because of the large amount of chocolate she and her sister ate just after breakfast, but likely at least exacerbated by the dex). Also, aside from the chocolate, she didn't eat anything else until I made her have an orange and a piece of cheese, probably six hours later. I do worry about the eating (and the tummy aches)... but on the other hand she has barely been eating her lunch this whole year (a combination of inattention and stress, I think), and she gets stomach-aches all the time, mostly stress-related. So if the medication helps lower her stress---which I really think it will---we hopefully won't actually be any worse off than we would be otherwise. Also with any luck the side-effects will likely ease up in a week or so. Anyway, I feel like a weight has lifted. There's still some stuff to do---getting medical information from the old doctors sent to the new one, getting a copy of her ADHD assessment in to her school file so she can get some help on that front---and I know it's not a miracle pill; it's not going to magically stuff all the info she's missed over the last two months into her head, by a long shot. But it's an improvement, and with any luck it'll help her pull it together. Robin has described ADHD as being like having a shield around your brain that keeps information from getting in; everything bounces off. And that's certainly what it seems like, dealing with Domini normally. And she's smart and socially aware---she knows that she's not understanding what the other kids are understanding; she knows that she's the poorest reader in her class; she knows that everyone else finishes their work while she's still sitting there trying to figure out what she's supposed to do. It sucks. It sucks feeling like the more you try to help your child the more she just ends up feeling inadequate because she doesn't get it (and wanders off topic all the time). So here's hoping this is a turning point, for her. Now all we need to do is get Robin working again...

What the heck am I thinking?

Taran — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:37:44 GMT

I'm signed up to do National Novel Writing Month again this year. Last year it made sense---I had a bit more time and not too much to do for my thesis yet. This year.... it does not make sense. I am crazy busy. I have to start planning for my comprehensives. I have thesis work and lab work and volunteering at the kids' school. How the HELL am I going to do this? Ah well. Worth reaching for, right?

My puppy (sad warning)

Taran — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:52:16 GMT

I just got an email from my mother that my dog is dying. Okay, her dog, but she wouldn't have him if it weren't for me. His name is Zeus, and he's a purebred Siberian Husky, silver coloration with brown eyes. He's sweet and rambunctious and stubborn and not terribly well trained, but he's ours. He turned 9 this month, so he's not young, but he's not ancient. He hasn't been eating well lately---a lot of throwing up and diarrhoea, to the point where he is getting quite weak. Mom took him to the vet and they said his lymph nodes are hugely enlarged; they did some tests which came back positive for lymphosarcoma... cancer of the lymph nodes. They gave him between two months and two years, but my mom isn't one to keep an animal suffering, so she's going to book the euthanasia. They're going to bury him out at my mom's boyfriend's river lot at Carlton, by his dog, Tina, who was a good friend of Zeus's. It's a beautiful place. I didn't think I'd be quite this sad.

I get to vote

Taran — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:21:17 GMT

for the Prime Minister. Well, probably against him, as I'm not a fan of his. Why is this exciting for me, you ask? Why is this different from any of the other federal elections I've voted in in the last 10 years? Because, for the first (and possibly only) time in my life, I live in the current PM's riding. For those not familiar with the Canadian federal government , we don't vote directly for the PM, or even for a party. The whole country's divided into political ridings. In each riding, you vote for the candidate you like best, fielded by various political parties; the usual choices are Conservative, Liberal, or New Democratic, with the occasional regional specialty like the Green Party or the Bloc Quebecois or the Marijuana Party. Whichever wins the most ridings, has the most members of parliament, and gets to have their party leader (who is also a member of parliament, at least if they're worth their salt) to be the Prime Minister. So, while i've voted in many federal elections (okay, three or four) this time I just happen to live in the current PM, Stephen Harper,'s riding. So for the first time I will actually get to vote for (or against) the actual PM! His name will be on my ballot! I won't vote for him, and of course he'll win by a landslide because a) he's Conservative and b) the party leader always wins in their riding... they'd be awfully embarrassed if they didn't. Alberta wants to be Texas and Calgary wants to be Dallas (or that's my impression, based entirely on mass media... I've never been to Texas). Cowboy hats, ranches, oil money, oversize trucks (with testicles). There was a provincial election just after we moved here which was also won by the provincial Conservatives, by a landslide, which I didn't vote in... but this time, I'm going to cast my little, useless protest vote! Because I can! and just to get to see Stephen Harper's name on the ballot... Well, it makes me happy, anyway.

I have house envy.

Taran — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:29:35 GMT

I am reaching That Age. 30 is looming. Many of my friends have Careers, and many are buying houses. I want one. I want a home that's mine---that I can paint any damn colour I want, put up any damn lightfixture I want, and FIX the things which are crummy because it's MINE and it's worth it. I want somewhere with a front door and a backdoor, and upstairs and a basement. I want a little yard, just enough for the girls to run around in and Robin to have a fish-pond in. I want a patio to put a barbeque on. I want somewhere where I can have my cats, and maybe eventually a dog. I want somewhere we'll stay, not just for a year, or two, but five or ten or forever. I want to not have to put my kids into a new school every other year. I want to decorate. I might even want to renovate, altough Robin doesn't. I don't care if it's small or old or slightly shabby. It would be mine.

More complications...

Taran — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:22:11 GMT

I just realized (which shows how much I've been paying attention) that my "paycheque" (actually scholarship money, yay) has been about $400 short every month for the past three months. No wonder we've been coming up short all summer (why the hell didn't I catch this sooner?). What seems to have happened (based on my own calculations) is that since I accepted the award starting in May, they gave me a reduced amount---for only eight months, until the end of the year. But the idjits at the university who pay it out then divided that reduced amount by 12, rather than eight, and have been giving me 12ths each month rather than 8ths. AAARgh! And double argh that it took me three months to notice this... I just thought we were doing too much travelling. Now, if they make good and pay me the back-money, that'd be sweet. But if it turns out I'm screwed... I'm gonna be pissed.

Oh crap.

Taran — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:37:38 GMT

We're moving. In a week. I found out about this... a week ago. AAAAAARGH! But, we got in to Student Family Housing, which means that if I can pull it off we'll be saving almost $500 a month in rent and I'll no longer have a 3 hour daily commute. The downside is living under the student housing nazis (who sound even worse, if possible, than the condo nazis I'm currently living under). Though I think we can maybe actually have real Christmas trees, which would make up for any number of iniquities. It will also be nice to live in a townhouse facing onto a little, grassed courtyard, rather than a fourth-floor apartment. But I have no idea how I'm going to get myself through the next two weeks...

The thing that bothers me most...

Taran — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:51:20 GMT

About all the moves I've made in the last eight years or so, is losing my books. Not all of them, by any means, my two big bookshelves are still lined double-deep and full to overflowing... But enough. All my Witchworld books are gone. And I had most of that series---the major parts, anyway. I really liked the Crystal Gryphon ones. And I keep going to look for Discworld books and not finding them. I'm fairly sure I've owned them, some even in hardcover (how do you lose hardcovers, dammit?), but they're JUST NOT THERE. Dammit. Of course it couldn't be the Mercedes Lackey or Anne McCaffery books, that I'm unlikely to re-read, that disappear. No, those ones seem to stick around. Not that that's a bad thing... the Anne McCafferies in particular I mostly stole, um, liberated, um, inherited from my father's collection, and I'd feel bad for losing them. I feel bad enough for reading half of those old paperbacks to tatters back when I was 12. I know at least one or two of the Discworlds are at my mom's, but there's more missing than I can account for. And there should be several Patricia C. Wrede books, too, now I think about it, that I don't think I've seen in half a decade or so. What gets me the most is HOW do these things disappear? I mean, you move into a place, the stuff is there, you move out, you box EVERYTHING up, you do a last go over and you haven't left anything, the truck goes straight to the new place and all the boxes come out... yet still stuff disappears. /sigh. But just misssing from the Discworld alone... Hmm, I think one ex-roommate might still have the three-volume hardcover with Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic, and, was it Sourcery? in it. My mom still has Mort, somewhere or other. She might conceivably have Soul Music, as well. Wyrd Sisters I should have in hardcover, and it's missing. Guards! Guards!, a ratty old ex-public-library paperback, is missing. Small Gods is missing, again in hardcover, as is Witches Abroad. Others... well, I'm a little hazier on whether I should actually own them or had just borrowed them from a library. Definitely books I SHOULD own. The whole damn series is one I can read over, and over, and over again, and my kids are almost old enough I could even start reading it to them... Yeah, just what I need... more books.

Vienna

Taran — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:50:44 GMT

is hot so far, which makes for crabby tourists. On the other hand, we caught the local Pride Parade, which was fun (in particular, two carriages drawn by people done up for pony-play, and a fair selection of goths). The hotel is a dorm, and so fairly abominable, especially after the last hotel, which was a 400-year-old Jesuit monastery... not overly lavish, but a helluva lot nicer. The dorm has internet, however, and a tub (though my room lacks a plug for the tub). So far I'm not liking Vienna as much as I liked Prague, though I'm not quite sure why (cobbled streets, fabulous architecture, lots of statues). Vienna seems a little fancier, maybe? I think mostly I'm just about ready to be home. Not that Europe hasn't been fabulous---I totally enjoyed the Czech Republic, especially the conference---but home would be nice. I miss my Robin. I miss my girls, and they won't even be home when I get there, which is going to rip me up but at least I'll be able to call them a little more easily.

Getting ready

Taran — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:00:49 GMT

to leave the Czech Republic; tomorrow we take the train to Vienna. Had a great time this week at the conference---about 30 people, so very close, and I found tetrapods on the field trip today, so I'm a happy palaeontologist. Though if I spend too much time in Europe I could definitely regret not going the archaeology route... but anyway. When I get home I will have a million photos (Ok, 600 right now, but there's still Vienna!) I love large memory cards :). Alrighty, gotta go, but I will get a more sensible account one of these days. I was doing all right for the homesickness until I got a facebook message from Domini tonight... that made me cry. Dammit! I miss my kids. And my Robin. A lot.

A few words from the old country

Taran — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:03:09 GMT

Prague: lots of graffiti nice buildings ugly buildings overgrown gardens did I mention lots of graffiti? low-flush toilets (that actually work just fine) small doors. The museum repository where we're working used to be the winter home of a circus. You can get an awesome meal at the nearest pub for 50 crowns (divide by about 14 to get the dollar price) or the same meal at a tourist trap downtown for almost 400. A lot of dumplings. A lot of stew/goulash/meat-in-sauce dishes. Nummy. A lot of beer (I'm told it's very good; can't comment myself). Some truly beautiful buildings; my favourites are the ones that are run down. The better kept up ones all have candy-coloured stucco. Lots of tile rooves, which are very pretty. It's thundering out right now but it was nice and hot up until now. I forgot and left my hotel room windows open today, so it's rather wet in there. The beds are hard but the pillows are huge and fluffy. I seem to have mostly overcome my jetlag. Ok, gotta run, more later :) PIcs will have to wait until I get home, though.

Holy cow

Taran — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:22:45 GMT

Well, I'm in Prague. I wasn't smart enough to sleep on the plane last night (I had a good book) so I'm so dizzy tired I can barely stand up, let alone think straight. Happy Canada Day everyone! Um, pictures when I have a chance to take some that aren't from a moving taxi. I'm hoping that pulling the equivalent of an all-nighter will allow me to snap into Czech time (it's 10:20 am at home and 6:20 pm here as I write this) fairly quickly. Anyway, so far so good... got on planes, passport worked, luggage arrived. Talk to you later!

all fall down

Taran — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:09:10 GMT

Ok, the title's a little melodramatic. All that's fallen down is my hope to have Ebony go to the same school as Domini when she starts kindergarten in the fall. Which would've meant she could go to the dayhome by Domini's school (the house of a classmate of Domini's, with a little sister just Ebony's age). Which would've meant I was all set to grit my teeth and deal with the massive commute to school from out here for another year until we (hopefully) qualify for Student Housing. But, no. If we stay down here, Ebony will have to go to the new French Immersion program opening in the school two neighbourhoods over (as opposed to Domini's school, which is three neighbourhoods over). I can still likely send her back to the dayhome she's been at this year, and Domini could go there after school, too, for about the same price as the other dayhome... but jeez. It would be REALLY nice to have them at the same school for once. They'd really like that. And I'm not quite sure if I can deal with dropping kids at 2 different bus stops and then waiting for my own bus at 8:00 in the morning when it's -40 out in the winter. The alternative is look for places around the hospital/university where I work. I really don't want to move again so soon, especially if we get into student housing, say, after christmas. But it would be LOVELY to cut that three hour commute out of my day, and if the convenience of an area where I know (a few) people and have daycare seems a lot less potent when it means juggling two different schools. Of course, if I was rich and, y'know, not an atheist, I could send them to the private christian school that's RIGHT NEXT DOOR... but anyway. Bleh. And Domini had really wanted to go to Emma's after school, too...

My children...

Taran — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:38:30 GMT

are tying themselves up right now. Seriously, the younger one can barely move.

poop!

Taran — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:45:37 GMT

Scooped! The paper from my undergrad research we've been trying to get published for, oh, like five years, just got rejected again. For the second time. This time, because last winter someone published something very similar, probably the same species we were trying to describe in ours, from a different site. So I'm pissed off with myself for sitting on my paper so long, and for not finding out about this other paper BEFORE I resubmitted my manuscript. Not to mention that I just hate rejection, which I freaking need to LEARN TO DEAL WITH because it's a big part of ALL of my spheres of interest (writing, science, dance). I just wish I didn't feel like something just clawed my stomach open and all I want to do is cry. I'll fix it, or I won't, depending on what we've got left to publish... I don't have time right now to go over their stuff in detail, and determining if we've got the same species or not will probably take physical comparison anyway. I just don't want to feel so absolutely crappy about it, like I'm a total failure who'll never get anything published. On the less professional side, I'm pissed off with the sloppy hairsplitters who scooped us for a) naming a new genus for their species (we were putting ours into an existing one), and b) NOT comparing their new species with the genus we were putting ours into. They mention the genus we were going to use in their discussion, once, but not in their diagnosis (where they say what's different about their new genus) at all. Just... dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Honey cornered me in the shower and distracted me nicely after supper, which was very sweet of him. I still feel like a total schmuck. Stupid and incompetent. Fuck. I'll get over it (I actually found out about it Wed., and I'm much better today than I was then)... but... fuck.

Father's day.

Taran — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:23:08 GMT

omigod I forgot to call my dad on father's day. Can you shoot me now, please? Dammit. I thought about it in the morning but then we were running off and doing stuff all day. dammit dammit dammit. We went to the Zoo, which was pretty awesome. Calgary Zoo is a whole nother league from the little Saskatoon Zoo we're used to. Though we didn't find the sting-rays... I don't know if they're still on display, after that accident where most of them died. It was pretty busy, but we'd never been before so we didn't really have anything to compare it with. We walked around for five hours. The girls did fabulously; we packed fruit and water and bought some popcorn, and it was perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold. Did I mention the girls did fabulously? I suppose strolling the zoo is more interesting than walking to the store, but they trooped along without a complaint for at least the first three hours, and it wasn't until just before we left that Ebony really started to fall apart. In hindsight perhaps we should have done the "Canadian Wilderness" part first, since it's the longest and not quite as rivetting as, oh, gorillas and giraffes and elephants. There is nothing cuter in this world than baby musk-ox. Nothing. I mean, the grownups are pretty darn cute, but the babies... wow. We did not get to see the baby gorilla, though we did see her mom. We did get to see the baby elephant, which is pretty cute in that so-ugly-it's-cute way. Robin was very sad that the cougar was not on display. A lot of the bears were just pacing back and forth, which was kind of sad to see since that's an indicator of mental health issues/stress/inadequate enrichment. There's a whole segment called the "prehistoric park" that's just dinosaur sculptures, and some mock-strata. Cute, but fairly cheesy; the sculptures are a bit dated and the sets were kinda run-down. But then, I'm picky about my dinosaurs ;). The kids loved it, though they were sad the mock volcano didn't erupt. After that, we went to Chuck E Cheese. We'd never been before. It was NOT what I was looking for after five hours tramping around the zoo. The children were instantly invigorated, mind you. It reminded me a lot of the fun-factory back home, but without an entrance fee, and with more arcade games and less climbing-area. I actually think I like the Fun Factory better---it has a huge climbing apparatus, which in my opinion is the good part of a place like that. The noise-level was similarly unbearable. I did manage to get over my grump, but Robin was not too thrilled with my attitude for a while, and I suppose I can't really blame him. It was HIS day, after all. Ah well. We survived. I think I'm still tired, but I can think of worse ways to spend a father's day. Ok, I'd better go call my Dad now...

I guess it's really happening.

Taran — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:55:50 GMT

The tickets are booked. The passport came in last week. I leave for the Czech Republic on the 30th of June. Which means I'll miss Canada day (actually, I'll be on a plane most of Canada day... yuck)... but it woulda been pretty sad without the kids, anyway. Yikes. Yay. Wow. Why the Czech, you ask? For school, of course. My supervisor and I are going to a conference on Permian palaeontology there. Assuming any of it is in English, it'll be a good background to the stuff i need to know for my thesis. Plus we get some time to rummage around the museums in Prague beforehand and Vienna after. With any luck my brother will manage to sail over from Edinburgh to meet up for a bit, too, which would be awesome since he's been gallivanting around Europe since last fall. Girls are going back to Saskatoon for July the weekend before. So I get to drive 14 hrs that weekend, then get on a plane for 20 hrs. I think I am going to be SICK of travelling. But I'm so excited. I guess it's a rather odd place to get one's first glimpse of Europe... but oh well. COOL!

Aaaaaaah...

Taran — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:54:40 GMT

We had our year-end dance recital last night. Damn, it felt good. I haven't really performed---well, probably since last year's Fringe. I love having a reason to wear my costume... I feel like (I know, cheesy) a goddess when I'm all dressed up. The girls got dressed up and came, and were mostly well-behaved or at least charming and only a little exhausting. Ebony spent a good chunk of time standing on a corner of the stage-area doing her own little dances. She's SO much more into physical movements than Domini ever was... it's pretty fascinating. I need to get them both back into dance. Ebony into gymnastics. Not to mention swimming lessons... Work continues obsessively on this evolving blue-and-cream costume. I need to make cream brocade (preferably a cotton brocade, I think, if such things exist) pantaloons. Big, stiff ones. If I can find the fabric. And I need more trim for the belt. Right now I've got the bra more-or-less done (still needs straps), a vest partially done (need more trim, and grommets), and belt partially done (needs more trim, and fasteners. The belt, I think, is really, really neat. Oh, it also incorporates my old blue jingle-panel, and the matching back-panel I ad never finished. If i want to incorporate jingles into other portions of the costume, I need more jingles. Why, oh why do I make costumes on my own? It's not a tribal costume. It's not a cabaret costume (not that I see myself performing oriental any time in the near future anyway). I don't even know what kind of music I might pair it with, if I ever should do such strange thing as a solo. But, ah well. It's using up that noxious, slippery blue velvet. I'm thinking it needs a hat---I can't decide if it should be a pillbox or something a little smaller, maybe with a bit of a point over the forehead. Amazingly, I am out of denim for bases. My jeans for the past six or seven years have been exclusively stretch-denim, and Robin doesn't have any old ones I can cut up right now. It's... odd. I scrounged up just enough to make one layer of non-stretch denim for the front and back pieces of the belt, put in two layers of stretch denim, and then lined it with a sturdy cotton canvas-type fabric, and used the last of the cotton-canvas, folded over about four times, to make the side-pieces for the belt. It worked out well, but took a lot more scrounging than I'm used to. I think it's going to look really cool, though! All right, enough of that. On with life...

I was writing.

Taran — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:43:20 GMT

Actually writing. A story. It might even go somewhere. I may be getting the hang of this plot thing. But... I know I'm rusty and out of practice, and spend way too much time on tribe or emailing. Because when my characters are speaking, I keep going to illustrate their emotions using :) or :( or ;) :P